SPOKANE, Wash. – Ryan Gross drilled a home run in the bottom of the tenth inning to lift Whitworth University to a 4-3 win over visiting Whitman College and give the Pirates a sweep of the Blues in a three-game Northwest Conference baseball series.

Gross homered twice and Luke Bruno drove in a pair of runs for the Bucs (10-3, 3-0).  Whitworth will hit the road next weekend for a three-game series at Pacific (Ore.).

The Pirates got on the board in the top of the first.  Ben Wintringer led off the game with a walk and moved to third on Dawson Warner's single to right field.  Wintringer scored on Bruno's sacrifice fly with one out. 

David Johnson tied the game for the Blues (4-8, 3-3) with a solo home run in the top of the second, his first of the season.  Gross led off the bottom of the fourth with his first dinger of 2020 to give the Pirates back the lead.

Matthew Sox, who started the game on the mound for Whitman, retied the contest with his third four-bagger of the spring in the top of the sixth.  The Blues took a 3-2 lead in the seventh after Brett Williams reached after a wild pitch on a swinging third strike, stole second and scored on Jerick Nomura's single up the middle with two outs.

Bruno tied the game in the bottom of the seventh with a solo homer to center field.  It was his third of the season and second of the series.

The game remained tied through nine.  Whitman had two runners on base in the ninth after consecutive hits with two outs.  But reliever Connor Grytdal got a pop up against cleanup hitter Kevin Normura to end the threat.

With two outs in the bottom of the tenth, Gross drove a ball that bounced off the top of Merkel Field's chainlink fence in right-center and went over for the game-winning homer.  Gross was mobbed by his teammates when he crossed the plate.

The Pirates earned their first series sweep of the Blues since 2016.

Gross finished the game 3-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored.  Joe Howell went 3-3 and he is 7 for 7 in the last two games. 

Tyson Yamane started on the mound for the Bucs and allowed two runs on four hits in six innings.  Grytdal followed in relief and gave up one run on five hits in 3.2 innings of work.  But Evan Norden (1-1) claimed his first win as a Pirate after pitching to one batter and recording the final out in the top of the tenth.

Sox, who came into the game with a 1.02 ERA and a league-best 29 strikeouts this season, allowed two runs on six hits in five innings.  He struck out seven, but walked five.  Collin Anderson followed and only gave up Bruno's homer in his three innings.  Tristan Kalnins (0-1) took the loss after giving up the homer in the tenth.

Nomura and Sox led Whitman with two hits each.